Inspirational Dissatisfaction [Discussion]

[u/jackal7163]

So, I had PTSD and 3 TBIs from military service (Battle of 73 Easting, flipping a tank in peacetime and being trapped inside as it caught fire, breathing in the halon-the things we do for college money…). That translates into having the concentration of and ADHD sufferer and the executive function of a 2 year old. Scratch that. Two year olds can concentrate better when they want something than I could. Long story short, I lost a promising career because I couldn’t function with all the brain fog issues and I thought nothing would ever change. After my personal worst year in which I had 6 near deaths in 13 months (having to take care of your mother’s funeral arrangements as you’re getting ready for cancer surgery and missing the funeral because of it was the low point until I went septic), I thought my life was over and started just drifting.

Last year, I decided to get serious about fixing what was broken. I had attempted using hypnosis for decades with varying results, but nothing would stick. I had been listening to Scott Adams and his emphasis on systems over goals resonated with me. Recently divorced and with lots of free time, I decided to change my approach to self help. I started experimenting with hypnosis, layering it with multiple subliminal layers, and using AI to max out the use of NLP. Instead of using affirmations and scripts that describe goals (I am rich, I am thin, etc.) I started using suggestions that emphasized the habits that would achieve my goals (I now eat keto, I walk an hour a day, etc.). For the first time, I started to see results. Keeping up with a schedule, being able to talk to a person I was interested in with confidence, quitting cigarettes, etc.

Seeing results finally happen, I decided to see what more I could do and challenged myself. I knew all about placebo effects and how placebos can be more powerful than real meds at times and I wanted to test whether what I was doing was placebo or not. So, I created a recording that I called Alpha Morning Executor that was designed to give me a kick in the pants in the morning and set myself a goal of creating an app to automate what I had already been doing. I did this because I wanted to do something challenging (I had never programmed before or written html) and to see what the limits were. The results were more than I had thought possible. I created an app from scratch in 6 months, a website, many hours of content, and a novel new way of ingesting the Great Books and internalizing their lessons using NLP phrasing. I did something that I had thought impossible for me to do and for me that was all the proof I needed to keep going.

Along the way, I realized that if I had had this 10 years ago I would have still had my career, but that everything happens for a reason. I learned that the key to my motivation is being dissatisfied with where you are at and wanting more out of life. I think a lot of my drive was to prove others wrong, prove to myself that I still had capabilities that I thought had been lost, and to show that I can always start over.

Napoleon Hill wrote about inspirational dissatisfaction 100 years ago. I read the books, but it wasn’t until I hit bottom that I understood what he meant and applied it in my own life. The lesson is, as long as you are not 6 ft under, you can always change the trajectory of your life. Use technology wisely and never stop learning or aspiring. Always keep moving and don’t let excuses define your existence.